


Sunnyland

by Sincerelyyoursanonymous



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anya / Lexa / Aden siblingship, Clarke Griffin / Lexa rivalry, F/F, Slow Burn, Summer Camp AU, arkadia is modern, at first, clash of the camps, it's mostly one sided, kind of, lexa is weary of clarke, polis is old school, they're all counselors, think colors but in a different universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 13:33:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21495118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sincerelyyoursanonymous/pseuds/Sincerelyyoursanonymous
Summary: Lexa is a counselor at Camp Polis; she has been every summer since she was thirteen. Prior to that, she herself was a camper since she was seven. Polis is her home away from home, and has been for as long as she can remember. She likes it just the way it is and never wants it to change.But then Camp Arkadia burns to the ground at the beginning of the summer. Instead of sending everyone home, the directors decide to merge Arkadia with Polis, campers and all. And this includes Clarke Griffin, head of the Skaikru girls group. Otherwise known as the soon to be extended group of the Trikru girls.AKA, the summer camp AU where Lexa is bitter and Clarke just wants to make friends while at summer camp.
Relationships: Clarke Griffin/Lexa
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	Sunnyland

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, long time no see. I had another fit of writers block for a while thanks to my depression, but some of my best work seems to come from me trying to get out of writers block. This is what came out of it this time. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

The third week of June seemed to always bring the days of never-ending heat with it. The humidity in Maryland wasn't always too bad, but it brought about a dry heat that made most of the people spending their days outside regret leaving their houses in the first place. The camp was bustling, as per usual, with long-known friends still catching each other up on their busy lives during the school year and getting to know each other all over again. Lexa was in the middle of watching her group paddle around on the end of the dock. She didn't want this to change. She didn't want anything to change. 

It came as a shock that morning when Indra called the counselors to her office to inform them as what was being dubbed the "Tragedy of Arkadia". A few nights ago the summer camp known as Arkadia had burned to the ground after an accidental fire started behind the mess hall. It left people shocked, kids terrified -- hell, Lexa could only imagine how the counselors all felt. But then she heard that the campers and counselors would be coming to Polis to finish out the rest of the summer; saving hundreds of potential refunds and still attempting to give kids the summer camp experience they were hoping for. 

Her campers were innocent. She had known most of them their entire lives ( or at least, since they were able to attend the camp at seven years old ). They were pure, innocent, and hardworking to the point where Lexa wouldn't be surprised if half of them ended up incredibly successful later in life. And from what she knew about Arkadia, those kids seemed to be the opposite. Arkadia was a camp created by corporate officials as a place to send their kids over the summer. Snotty, rich; everything that Polis wasn't. Lexa tried to tell Indra this, but Indra wasn't having any of it. 

_"You don't know them, Lexa. Those are just rumors."_

Indra always tried to see the best in people. 

Nevertheless, Lexa's distaste went unnoticed. It was offical: the campers and counselors of Arkadia would be attending Polis that summer. 

It was a few hours later during dinner that Indra called a camp meeting to tell the kids what would be happening in the next few days. She announced that Polis would be merging with Arkadia, and how they'd be bringing in a lot more kids. Bunks would have to be shared, going from almost every kid to having their own bunk to having to share. Tables would be more full, and they'd have to extend the firepit seats a little bit more. While Polis was huge, they had a small population due to not being the most popular camp in the area. But that's how everyone liked it; small, close-knit and almost impossible to not get to know everyone. 

Kids had mixed reactions. Some were excited at the prospect of having new friends and making new memories with people they didn't know before. Some were upset at the idea of having to share their bunks; not being able to have impromptu sleeping situations with the other campers of Polis. Some were even mad or confused about what was going on; how everything was going to change due to this one event. 

"Can you believe any of this? Turning our home into what? An orphanage?" Lexa asked Anya in a hushed tone, leaning over towards her from her seat at the counselor's table. 

"Get your head out of your ass, Lex. They're just kids. It could be fun." Anya replied, her voice annoyed. 

Lexa scoffed and leaned further in her seat, crossing her arms. She didn't want any of this to happen. And if she had it her way, it wouldn't. 

After dinner the campers were free to do what they wanted, be it that it was done safely. The counselors, however, had anything but free time. They were sent to work to get everything ready for the arrival of Arkadia. Groups became maximized, sorting the kids by age within the already-formed groups, counselors are paired off with the counselors from Arkadia and accommodations are made to house and feed them. Lexa is mostly frustrated that her Natblida group is noticeably bigger, and she'd have less time to get to know her campers the way she liked to. Not only that, but now she had to make room for the counselor joining her in what was once her solo room. 

She wasn't happy about this at all. 

A knock on the door of the cabin pulled Lexa from her sulking. She didn't want company, wasn't in the mood. But once she saw that it was Aden, she let him in with a sigh. 

"Don't look so down, Lex. Think of the kids. Isn't what this is about? Making sure that they have the good summer that they wanted?" Aden tried, fiddling with the piece of paper in his hands. "This isn't all about the counselors. This is mostly about the kids. They could've sent them all home, gave the parents refunds that the camp itself couldn't afford right away due to everything being burned, and those kids would spend the rest of their summer bummed out and potentially causing trouble." 

"They're city kids. All they do is cause trouble." Lexa grumbled, leaning against the back of one of the couches in the cabin. 

"Says the one who grew up in the city. Look," He sighed, shifting in place. "This is a good thing. For all of us. We get to meet new people, _and_ we get to help these kids have a good summer. Isn't that the point of all this?" 

Lexa couldn't look at him. She knew that he had a point. Maybe she was overreacting, but she truly felt that she had a right to be when her home was being invaded. 

"Indra finished the pairs." Aden stated after a moment, "Looks like they just combined based on age. Luckily, Arkadia had a system similar to ours." He looked down at the paper in his hands, running his finger along the names. "I'm with this guy named Bellamy; looks like his sister is with Niylah. They have the same last name."

"Who am I with?" Lexa asked, suddenly interested. 

"Ah," Aden paused, finding Lexa's name. "Clarke Griffin, counselor of the girls' Skaikru group." 

"What?" She scoffed, "Clarke isn't even a girl's name." 

"It is when you're from the city and you come from a family of money." Aden explained, his voice full of amusement at how worked up Lexa was getting from this. He hadn't seen his sister this worked up since high school when one of her old teammates had decided to go to Polis, too. 

Polis was a soft spot for all of them, but mostly Lexa. 

"You think they're all this fancy? What about the other names?" Lexa asked, crossing her arms. 

"Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia... Raven, Johnathan, Monty... Finn, Harper..." Aden trailed his finger down the list, naming them off as he went. 

"Jesus, this sounds like some stupid futuristic novel." 

"You think Arkadia wore uniforms? Like some private school?" Aden asked. 

"God, I hope not. That's the last thing we need; some people trying to get us all to wear uniforms. At least here we can choose what kind of pants we wear and the color of our shirts." 

As he listened to his sister continue on about what she does and doesn't wish about Arkadia, Aden was silently hoping that the kids were at least going to be well-behaved. He knew about city kids; he, Lexa and Anya were all one of them once upon a time before they got adopted and moved out to the country. But that's how they stumbled upon Polis thanks to Indra, their foster mother -- she showed them the ins and outs and everyone there. They grew up with the other counselors, grew up raising the kids that they saw every year. And while he wasn't too happy about the change himself, he was just hoping that Lexa wouldn't make too big of a fool of herself once Arkadia arrived. 

\---------------------------------------------------

The bus ride was long. The windows were all down to mask the summer heat, but that didn't seem to deter the overall melancholy atmosphere amongst the Arkadia folks. Raven was sulking next to her, having to uproot what she claimed was going to be the "greatest summer _ever_" only to have to be transferred to Polis. Octavia was sound asleep behind her and Raven, her head resting on Bellamy's shoulder. The man was tapping away on his phone; either playing a game or attempting to charm his latest conquest -- she wasn't sure. But he was so focused that she doubted anything could pull his attention away from it. Murphy was tucked into his jacket next to the window in the seat he shared with Finn, either sleeping or hitting his weed pen. He was probably pissed that they had to call him in from his summer off to cover for Jasper -- but Clarke knew that Murphy actually cared about these kids. Finn himself was keeping himself busy by tossing paper balls at Raven, which seemed to only irritate the brunette more. And then you had Monty and Harper, who seemed to luck out by getting the seats at the back of the bus -- but they were curled into each other, every time Clarke looked back at her. This time, they were sleeping. Clarke couldn't fall asleep even if she tried. She was thinking far too much to relax.

The bus was quiet. It was early; they wanted to get a head start on the day to get everything done once they arrived at Polis. Most of the campers were either tied into their phones or sleeping still, as well as they could with the early morning heat. They had already been on the bus for about an hour and Clarke wasn't sure how much longer they had. It seemed like they passed endless amounts of trees -- if Clarke didn't know any better she'd assume the driver was taking them to murder them in the woods. She's seen far too many horror films. 

Despite the relocation and the promise of still giving the campers a good summer, Clarke was upset. Arkadia was her home; her home away from home. She grew up there; spent every summer possible there. It helped out that her father was the maintenance man, so even when she was too young to be attending the camp, she still spent summer after summer doing little odds and ends jobs and creating fantasy worlds among the camp. It was her place to get away from grueling hours of school and work, her place to get away from her mother's comments about her future and where she's going to college -- "_I'm telling you, Yale has an excellent law program. Have you ever thought about being a lawyer, Clarke?_" -- a place where she was surrounded by her friends and the comfort of campfires. It never failed to bring out the artist in her. 

Clarke did her research early on in the bus ride, but the website only showed so much. It was definitely a lower-budget place than Arkadia, but Clarke wasn't expecting anything that was set to Arkadia's standards. There was a lot that Jaha could do with money, and he seemed to invest a lot of it in Arkadia. But Polis seemed to be the opposite. 

They built themselves on companionship rather than tech. No wifi, no cell phone service -- all outdoor activities. It was definitely different compared to the artistic and technical aspects of Arkadia, which was known for fueling the kids who thrived on art and building robots and other things that seemed to fit every one of the counselors. It was considered a blast from the past compared to Arkadia, and Clarke wasn't sure how to feel about that. 

They arrived at Polis within another half hour. Just from the looks of it, Clarke could tell that this was going to be quite an interesting summer. It was vastly different from Arkadia; surrounded by trees, old, rustic cabins sprawled about, and not a cell phone tower in sight. Clarke could hear Raven's groan from beside her. It didn't take a supergenius to know that the supergenius beside her wasn't all too happy about this. 

As they got off the bus, the smell of burning wood from the campfire hit her. The smell alone was enough to bring her back to that night -- the night that just thinking about it sends a wave of panic through her. 

_Clarke smelled the smoke before she realized what was going on. At first, she thought it was just someone having a late night campfire. It smelled like wood; like what she had been smelling for so many years. It was familiar. But something in her gut told her that something was wrong. She woke Raven up as fast as she could, and soon enough her groggy friend was smelling it too. They got to the window quickly, only to see what seemed to be the entire camp engulfed in flames. It was only a matter of time before it got to them. She wasn't even sure how long they'd have to get their campers out out of the building._

_They were barely able to get everyone out safely; the fire was growing rapidly. Clarke was just glad to see that Bellamy and the other guys were able to get their groups out, too. It was like something you saw in forest fire awareness commercials; everything they knew, everything they loved was burning to the ground._

That night still haunted her dreams. The memories that she once had, now replaced with the sight of the buildings on fire, the screams of the kids terrified and yelling for their friends. The realization afterwards that, despite the fact that they were able to save _some_ stuff, that thousands of dollars worth of equipment, artwork, personal items -- they were all gone. And while all the money in the world could replace those things, nothing could replace the memories of these kids who had to witness it. It seemed to constantly send a shiver down Clarke's spine when she thought of it. 

Kane met them at the entrance to the camp with their bunk assignments. Clarke was paired with someone named Lexa Woods -- Bellamy and Octavia paired with the other two Woods' in the camp. She wondered if they were related, or if it was just some weird coincidence. She stuck to Bellamy's side, linking her arm with his as they walked further into the camp. She felt worried, and overwhelmed, even though she knew she shouldn't be. 

Everything was different. The bunks were sorted by age, providing more room in the cabins rather than just separating it by gender. Which meant that both Raven and Octavia would be in a completely different cabin than her, leaving her alone with her new bunk mate. It was unsettling. 

The Polis director greeted them shortly after and gave them all maps with their specific bunks circled, hoping to help them navigate more. But compared to Arkadia, Polis was huge. Even with the map Clarke was afraid she was going to get lost at least five times before even finding her cabin. And to make matters worse, Raven was her only hope in actually finding their cabins ( she was lucky that they were right next to each other, at least ). Once they managed to find their cabins, they were then in charge of guiding their rowdy campers to the cabins to help them settle in. It was easier said than done, however. It took Clarke far too long to guide them back. 

Polis as a whole, however, was as beautiful as it was big. The amount of trees was the most impressive thing; it seemed that they had at least three times as many around their camp as Arkadia did. They had dozens of paths, not only leading to various activities and locations but paths that were there just to walk along and enjoy nature. Clarke's girls are restless and overwhelmed, but she could tell they were partially in awe about what Polis had to offer. 

The cabins themselves were one of the biggest differences. At Arkadia, the dorms were separated by building, and then it was separated by age groups upon floors. It was almost like a college dorm; the counselors ( 2 per floor ) acted as RA's. There were two girls per room, and the counselors were sorted in the middle. At Polis, all the girls were in bunk beds on the second floor while the counselors were in a room off of the main lounge area, in a place where they could still hear the girls, but also have their own privacy. It reminded Clarke of how Arkadia once was when she was younger, back before Jaha took over. A lot of Polis was reminding her of those times. 

As the girls scurried upstairs to settle in with what they had left of their belongings and packages that their parents sent to them after the fire, Clarke let herself into the counselors room. She wasn't expecting her bunk mate -- Lexa -- to be waiting there for her, but there she was. Lean, brunette, and a face so cold Clarke thought she was going to turn to ice. 

"Ah," Clarke cleared her throat. "Hey. I'm Clarke." She stepped towards Lexa, offering her arm. The girl refused to shake it. 

"Lexa." 

"How often are you a counselor here?" 

No response. 

"Did you used to have a roommate?" 

Again, no response.

She sighed. Clarke could tell that Lexa was clearly not up for talking. So she went about her business, unpacking what she had. She could hear the girls upstairs already seeming to get along, and it was the laughter and hollers that seemed to get Lexa's attention, too. 

Past the glares and the lack of eye contact, Lexa finally said more than one word to Clarke -- "I only have three rules about this cabin. One, keep the girls safe. Two, keep them out of trouble. And three," She paused, standing up and walking towards the door. "Don't touch my stuff." 

Once Lexa left the room and headed upstairs, Clarke was able to finally breathe without feeling like she was about to be judged. She added small paintings around the room, put her clothes away and gave herself time to just settle into what would become her home away from home -- at least for the summer. Maybe by next year Arkadia would be back in business. 

Clarke could only hope. 

\---------------------------

Lunch made Clarke feel like she was a freshman in high school all over again. All the campers were grouped up in their friend circles, forming what seemed to be little cliques ( Clarke just hoped that the drama wasn't included, too ). She could spot her friends at the back of the cafeteria, at what she assumed was the counselors table, but there was just one problem with that. 

Lexa had plopped herself down one seat away from Raven. 

She let out a sigh as she got her food and walked over to the table, taking a seat hesitantly next to Raven. She felt uneasy around Lexa; wasn't sure what she did wrong so early in the summer. She was trying to be nice, she even made a very clear line between her stuff and Lexa's as to not disturb any of what Lexa called hers. She was trying, and she hoped that that was enough. 

Granted, it certainly didn't help hearing how Raven and Octavia had dragged her into a conversation where they bragged and gushed about their respective roommates, Anya and Niylah. It left Clarke feeling empty -- if those two could get along with her friends so well, what made Lexa so different? What did she do to offend her roommate so early on? 

She contemplated moving; going to sit with Bellamy. At least he would notice how she was acting and try and help her feel better. Bellamy would make her feel safe. Bellamy would listen to her vent about Lexa and actually try to find a solution. But Bellamy was already deep in conversation with his own roommate and the other counselors at the other table. It seemed that Clarke was alone. 

It made Clarke just want to go home. 

And that night, Lexa still refused to say a word to her as she fell asleep to the wind blowing outside and the cabin creaking creepily around them. The blonde didn't get much sleep that night.

**Author's Note:**

> As always I hope you guys liked, and feel free to tell me how much you like it. Really boosts my ego, y'know.


End file.
